Distribute is intended to replace Setuptools as the standard method
for working with Python module distributions.

The fork has two goals:

Providing a backward compatible version to replace Setuptools
and make all distributions that depend on Setuptools work as
before, but with less bugs and behaviorial issues.

This work is done in the 0.6.x series.

Starting with version 0.6.2, Distribute supports Python 3.
Installing and using distribute for Python 3 code works exactly
the same as for Python 2 code, but Distribute also helps you to support
Python 2 and Python 3 from the same source code by letting you run 2to3
on the code as a part of the build process, by setting the keyword parameter
use_2to3 to True. See http://packages.python.org/distribute for more
information.

Refactoring the code, and releasing it in several distributions.
This work is being done in the 0.7.x series but not yet released.

You can get more information in the Sphinx-based documentation, located
at http://packages.python.org/distribute. This documentation includes the old
Setuptools documentation that is slowly replaced, and brand new content.

The Distribute installer modifies your installation by de-activating an
existing installation of Setuptools in a bootstrap process. This process
has been tested in various installation schemes and contexts but in case of a
bug during this process your Python installation might be left in a broken
state. Since all modified files and directories are copied before the
installation starts, you will be able to get back to a normal state by reading
the instructions in the Uninstallation instructions section.

In any case, it is recommended to save you site-packages directory before
you start the installation of Distribute.

Since Distribute is a fork, and since it provides the same package
and modules, it renames the existing Setuptools egg and inserts a
new one which merely wraps the Distribute code. This way, full
backwards compatibility is kept for packages which rely on the
Setuptools modules.

At the same time, packages can meet their dependency on Setuptools
without actually installing it (which would disable Distribute).

How does Distribute interact with virtualenv?

Everytime you create a virtualenv it will install setuptools by default.
You either need to re-install Distribute in it right after or pass the
--distribute option when creating it.

Once installed, your virtualenv will use Distribute transparently.

Although, if you have Setuptools installed in your system-wide Python,
and if the virtualenv you are in was generated without the --no-site-packages
option, the Distribute installation will stop.

You need in this case to build a virtualenv with the --no-site-packages
option or to install Distribute globally.

How does Distribute interacts with zc.buildout?

You can use Distribute in your zc.buildout, with the --distribute option,
starting at zc.buildout 1.4.2:

$ python bootstrap.py --distribute

For previous zc.buildout versions, the only thing you need to do
is use the bootstrap at http://python-distribute.org/bootstrap.py. Run
that bootstrap and bin/buildout (and all other buildout-generated
scripts) will transparently use distribute instead of setuptools. You do
not need a specific buildout release.

A shared eggs directory is no problem (since 0.6.6): the setuptools egg is
left in place unmodified. So other buildouts that do not yet use the new
bootstrap continue to work just fine. And there is no need to list
distribute somewhere in your eggs: using the bootstrap is enough.